THE HAPPY HOOKUP: The Basics of Connecting Audio Gear

Making sure that your audio/video system does what it’s meant to do — thirteenth
in a series on the basics of audio.

At one time, it might have been reasonable to think of “a stereo” as one
object, contained in a single cabinet that just had to be plugged in and
turned on. Some modest units today fit that description as well, but to obtain
anything more than minimal sound quality, you need a stereo system made
up of separate components, usually from a variety of sources. Once you have
selected your equipment, bought it, and taken it home, therefore, you will
be faced with the challenge of setting it all up and making it work together.

It is possible to have your dealer put the system together for you, but
that won’t help if you have to move the system later or if you make additions
to it. You will understand your system much better if you roll up your sleeves
and do it yourself. But that need not be difficult as long as you approach
the task in an organized fashion.

To take advantage of the capabilities of even a modest system, you will
have to plan it carefully and pay a great deal of attention to both the physical
placement and the interconnection of the various components. When you are
making your equipment purchases, bear in mind what you will eventually have
to do to make the system work.

All systems require wires, for in stance, so before you leave the store
make sure you have enough. Most components are supplied with the appropriate
patch cords, but a few may not be, so rather than get all the boxes home
and then find you have to run out and buy more wires before you can even
begin, it’s a good idea to make sure they are included at the store. Coaxial
cable for video signals is one sort of wire you might have to buy separately,
as the lengths typically included with VCR’S are minimal.

The one thing you will definitely have to buy is speaker wire. As to the
sort you should choose, the main determining factor is the wire’s thickness.
Most specialty speaker cables are heavy enough to be appropriate for the
longest runs (but this category definitely doesn’t include the sort of light,
clear-plastic-coated wire often labeled “speaker wire”). When you buy conventional
wire, however, you’ll find there is a wide choice of thicknesses. Ordinary
18-gauge lamp cord is probably adequate for short runs of, say, 15 feet or
less, and few installations require anything heavier than 16-gauge. For very
long runs, however, you should step up to 14- or even 12-gauge cable.

Unpacking

Once you have brought home every thing you need, there will be a strong
temptation to rip all the boxes open immediately, pull out the components,
and plug them together in some fashion just to see how they work. While this
is a natural enough impulse, it’s one that should be controlled—a more methodical
approach will reduce the likelihood of mistakes.

Before you proceed, look at the first few pages of the instruction book
for each component for any specific directions about unpacking. When you
have removed a component, put all the packing material back in the carton
and save the box. If you have to send equipment in for service, or when you
move to a new home, you will need the cartons. Check the back of each component,
note down all the serial numbers, and put your list in a safe place.

Some components require a small amount of assembly or adjustment be fore
they can be used. Most CD players, and, some cassette decks, have transit
screws to keep their moving parts from rattling around during shipment, and
these screws must be loosened or removed. One piece of equipment that often
needs considerable assembly is a turntable: You may have to install the platter,
the dust cover, the tonearm counterweight, or the cartridge headshell. Although
it’s a good idea to put everything together right out of the box, the final
assembly stage—balancing and adjusting the tonearm and cartridge—should be
left until the turntable is in its final playing position.

A rough positioning of the components at this stage will show you what works
physically. You may find that the receiver, say, looks peculiar sitting on
top of the cassette deck because it’s an inch wider; or the CD player might
be 3 inches deeper than the VCR and will sit on it only at an angle. It is
easier to rearrange the components now, be fore they are connected together.
Also keep in mind things that will make the system easier to operate after
it is set up. For instance, if you intend to make a lot of audio recordings,
place the cassette deck where its level meters will be easily visible. And
make sure that there is a clear line of sight from your listening position
to components with infrared remote controls.

A Matter of Power

Before you deal with any signal connections, you will have to decide how
to get AC power to each of the components. With most systems, it is desirable
to have everything operate from a single power switch, usually on the receiver.
Most receivers, integrated amplifiers, and preamps have both switched and
unswitched AC outlets on the back, but unless you have a very uncomplicated
system, you will probably not be able to connect everything directly to these
outlets. If the other components have their own outlets, you may be able
to string them together in series, but make sure that the total maximum power
consumption of all the components does not exceed the controlling component’s
capacity. An alternative is to buy a power strip with five or six AC outlets
and a master power switch.

Some equipment is intolerant of having AC power completely removed. With
a videocassette recorder, for in stance, shutting off the power any where
but at its own switch will disable its clock and timer and may erase any
channel presets in its memory. Such components have to be powered from the
unswitched outlet of your receiver or amplifier or even directly from a wall
outlet.

Whatever arrangement you decide on, one thing you should avoid is a tangle
of power cords behind the system. Not only do these cords have a tendency
to tie themselves in knots, but there is a risk that tangles will cause audible
hum. Most power cords come coiled up and held either by a plastic retainer
or a twist tie of some sort; undo enough of the cord to reach to the appropriate
power outlet and secure the rest with the supplied retainer. Then label each
plug in case it has to be disconnected and reconnected later. In fact, all
the cables that tie your system together should be labeled. Patch cords look
pretty much alike, and once the system is wired up, it’s often hard to tell
what leads where. You may want to change things in the future, and labels
will save you a lot of trouble.

First Connections

At this stage you should place each component close to its final position,
but without obscuring the connections on the rear panel. Attach the speaker
cables to the output terminals of the amplifier or receiver, being sure to
observe any polarity markings (+ and - or red and black), and check to make
sure there are no whiskers of wire protruding that might short-circuit against
the chassis or the other terminal.

Next, if you’ve chosen separates instead of a receiver, connect the central
audio components—the power amplifier, preamplifier, and tuner or the integrated
amplifier and tuner—using the appropriately marked cords (make sure the
power switches are off). When you have this nucleus assembled, perform a
few simple tests to make sure it is connected properly.

Before you turn the power on, check the various controls on the receiver
or preamplifier to make sure that the tape-monitor switches are off, that
the tone controls are in the “flat” position, that the balance control is
in the center, and that any speaker-selection switches are activated correctly
for your setup. With the level controls down, turn on the power and observe
whether all the appropriate pilot lights are illuminated. Select FM as a
signal source and tune in a station, then turn the sound up gradually. Observe
whether sound is being produced and whether it is coming out of both speakers.
If there is any problem, shut the system down immediately and recheck your
connections and settings.

If you’re hearing sound from both speakers, turn the balance control all
the way to the left and then to the right, and note whether sound is being
produced only by the appropriate speaker in each case. Next, place the speakers
a few feet apart, and feed a mono signal to both of them at equal level.
If the speakers are in phase (that is, if they have the correct relative
polarity), the sound should appear to come from a very distinct point midway
between the speakers. To exaggerate the effect, put your head directly be
tween them—the sound should seem to originate right between your ears. If
you are in any doubt, reverse the wires for one speaker only and repeat the
test: the difference will immediately be obvious.

Once the central components and the speakers are working properly, it’s
time to deal with the source components. Most of us spend a large portion
of our hi-fi listening time tuned to FM, so it’s worth taking some trouble
to make sure you are receiving a high-quality signal. This can be simple
or difficult, but you never really know until you hook up an antenna and
see what it does.

The simplest antenna is the T-shape wire dipole provided with most receivers
and tuners. For many applications, particularly in cities, where you are
close to the broadcasting antennas, a dipole is enough, but it has to be
positioned carefully. Hook it to the 300-ohm antenna terminals on the rear
panel of your receiver or tuner, and then move it about until the reception
is best. It’s not a good idea to nail the dipole to the wall just yet, however,
as you may well find a better position after living with it for a while.

If the dipole turns out to be clearly inadequate, an indoor tunable antenna
may be the answer. The next step up is the rooftop antenna, but this may
be impossible if, say, you live in an apartment building. In that case, you
may have to subscribe to your cable-Tv company’s FM feed, if one is available.

When it comes to other sources, you may have to make some decisions, especially
if you want to attach more than one recording device. All but the most modest
of receivers and preamplifiers provide two or more tape-monitor circuits,
and these are usually interconnected in some way, so this is the time to
decide which recorder should be attached to which circuit. If you are planning
to use your system for dubbing tapes, the choice may be critical, as many
preamps and receivers allow copying from Deck A to Deck B, but not the other
way around.

Setting up your tape equipment is normally straightforward, but it can be
more complicated if it has to be done in conjunction with a signal processor—
an equalizer, say, or a surround-sound decoder. With some receivers and amplifiers,
a signal processor will have to be placed in one of the tape-monitor loops.
For this reason, most such components have built-in tape-monitor circuits
to replace the ones they occupy.

The remaining components, such as compact disc or videodisc players, should
be much simpler to hook up because they are single-ended—they simply supply
a signal to be reproduced. The only difficulty you are likely to face with
this sort of equipment is if you have more of it than your preamp or receiver
can accommodate. The best way to prevent this is by choosing equipment with
the right number of inputs in the first place.

The Vinyl Touch

Although more and more buyers are choosing to do without vinyl capability,
anyone with a collection of LP’s will undoubtedly add a turntable, and that
should be set up next. Most turn tables are supplied with a tonearm already
mounted, but in some very ambitious systems, tonearms are separate components.
Where possible, it is advisable to have your dealer mount the arm before
delivery; but if you find that you have to do it yourself, follow the instructions
exactly—any shortcuts can seriously compromise performance.

It’s more probable that you will have to mount just the phono cartridge.
Be very careful to observe things like overhang and positioning in the headshell,
and make sure that the electrical connections are both secure and correct—most
tonearm and cartridge manufacturers color-code the connections, but some
don’t. If you have a modular P-mount cartridge and arm, things will be much
simpler: Just plug the cartridge in and forget it.

After you have put together the turntable/arm/cartridge combination, move
it to its final position and hook it up. A separate ground wire is included
because the signal from a phone cartridge is extremely weak and therefore
more susceptible to hum than other parts of the system. It’s a matter of
insurance and is often not needed.

The Last Step

As you gradually interconnect your equipment, you will probably place the
pieces in their final positions. What you should leave until last is the
most critical part of the system: the speakers. The sound they will produce
is as much a product of their acoustic environment as of their inherent properties,
so great care must be taken to insure they are performing optimally.

Make sure the speakers are in acoustic environments that follow the manufacturer’s
suggestions, if any, and that their respective placements are as similar
as possible. Surfaces close to the speakers have a profound influence on
the overall impression a speaker makes. It’s important that the two channels
sound alike, and this is extremely hard to achieve if the room acts on them
differently. So avoid putting one speaker in a corner and the other along
a wall or next to a door way, for example. Be prepared to move the speakers
around a bit— sometimes very slight adjustments of position can result in
dramatic improvements in the sound.

NEXT: Making sure your audio system will sound as good years from now as
it does today.